First Paid Job

[rk911]

What was your first paying job, time frame, pay and task? I started in a fast food joint when I was 15 in the mid 1960's, flipping burgers for $0.65/hour. The owner was a friend of my family and I worked there through college. Now it is a Firestone tire store.

i was 13-14 and pedaled a three-wheeled bike/cart selling popsicles and ice cream bars around town one summer. first pay envelope was $13! I bought a desktop clock radio.

had a twice-weekly paper route when I was 15. kept that for several years. don't recall if I was paid cash or by check.

first W2 job would've been Burger King when I waa 17 (senior year).

 

[Pointby2]

My first job was a dishwasher at Sophia's Pancake House at $1.10 an hour. My father was a highway patrolman and he was a regular there. When he saw I was hanging around with kind of a rough crowd, he "found" me my first job.

Over the summer I worked 40 hours and after taxes if was under $40. I quit and found a new job.

 

[Telly]

My first real job, W-2, at 16 in a factory. Started at $1.90/hr. I think minimum wage back then was $1.65/hr. Started in a small 4-person incoming inspection department for a company that made telecom equipment that the public never sees. My job was to check what was on skids that came in from Receiving, look for electronic components, pull a copy of the PO, open up boxes, and take a sampling of parts. An at-random 32 pieces, IIRC. Then test them using whatever test equipment required. If 1 out of the 32 failed to meet specs, then take a bigger sample. If 2 out of 32 failed, reject shipment and write it all up, including rejection papers.

With my abilities, quickly moved on from testing mundane parts, to testing transistors with a $$ HP Curve Tracer. Also spent 10 hours a day every day of my high school spring vacation, testing a zillion shipping tubes of Motorola 1437L DIP-packaged dual op-amps, as Motorola had problems, but we desperately needed good parts to avoid shutting down production. I was methodical, I set up and labeled boxes to be tested, tested good, tested bad, went through thousands of ICs with no errors.
The big QA boss always stopped by to see how I was doing on his way home at evening.
A few months later, the supervisor of the electronic test dept. came over and asked if I could "help out for a bit" in his Dept., which tested and troubleshot/repaired modules from production. That was my new job.
I liked working there, day shift would go home, the place would become very quiet until the "second shift production ladies" came in at 6:30 PM who worked further over.

I too was surprised how much was taken out of my check FICA/FIT/St. taxes. For some reason, I previously thought it would ALL be mine!

I was always interested in mechanical/electrical/electronic things as a child. Took things apart when they were thrown out, wanted to see inside, how did they work. Found most people couldn't care less, wondered why I was doing that. Didn't bother me, I kept on.

Unfortunately, the early to mid 1970s were recession riddled, layoffs, hired somewhere else, etc. while at same time trying to go to college then.

I learned a lot about people and money in factories. Good people who wished they would have gotten an education when they were younger, some very petty "little people", to college-kid haters that were dead-enders in life and thought the blame for that always laid elsewhere than themselves.
One of the lessons learned was for me to go on and get a professional degree from a high-rated University, and never work in a factory again.

That degree, and abilities, opened doors.

 

[MarieIG]

My first paid job was a page at my local public library, at age 16. I shelved books, mostly, and kept them in order, a far more tedious task. I started at $2.25 an hour in late 1979, below the minimum wage because it was civil service (at least that's what they told me). But no taxes withheld, not even SS. I got several small raises in the nearly 2 years I worked there, for reaching hours worked milestones and COLAs, so by the time I left in late 1981 I had reached minimum wage.

My college years included jobs such as a day camp counselor twice, an usher in a Broadway theater, tutoring, and a monitor of the dorm's game room and study hall area. I remember one day at the end of the 1983 spring semester when I got paid for all 3 of those jobs a few hours apart. I later worked at my college's library (NYU's Bobst Library, a huge building).

Some jobs were W-2 but had no taxes withheld except for SS; other jobs were off-the-books. The Broadway ushering job was fun because it gave me a taste of the NYC night life in the mid-1980s.

You are jogging my memory. Not my first job, but I worked in the local public library as a teen as well (also below minimum wage). There was also a short stint as a camp counselor . . .

 

[foxfirev5]

1972. Shoveling on an asphalt paving crew for $2/hr. Not only that but I did it for 6 summers ending up at 7.50/hr in 1977. Nice way to lose 6-8 lb per day when you only weigh 150 lb to start. It certainly motivated me to finish college.

 

[Walt34]

My first W2 job was pumping gas at the neighborhood Esso station, back when they paid people to pump the gas, check the oil, clean the windshield. And like Gumby, I had calculated what my pay should be and I got the same rude reality check when the first payday arrived. Prior to that I'd been mowing lawns and shoveling snow since age 13.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

First job was clearing rocks from a field for $1 an hour. I managed to break the rear windshield of the guy’s pickup truck. Later I was a helper on a neighbor’s farm where I cleaned horse stalls, fed and watered the animals, and did whatever was needed. Later, when I had a “real” office job, I realized I was still shoveling manure but it was only to move it from one pile to another, whereas in the old days I at least got rid of it.

 

[ClarkeK]

First job was in 1979, at age 15, as a dishwasher/floor-mopper/dough-maker at the Italian Delight at our local mall. Worked Mon/Wed/Friday nights, 5-10pm. Was paid $2.00 under the table.

First tax paying job was in 1980, working part time in a local machine shop for min wage at $3.10 per hour (I think). I worked in the morning as part of our high school's work program then went to class in the afternoon.

 

[MC Rider]

I also sold greeting cars door to door. I forget what age but young because I think I was still cute. That wore off and I shoveled snow, mowed, painted fences, rolled and delivered papers, etc. First W2 job was in a fast food restaurant. Cooked burgers, ran the fryer, cash register, cleaned off tables, mopped. Gleaned the grease trap a time or 2. Yechhh! Next was a grocery market, then college and I had a bunch of jobs during and after. It seems 1981 was not a good job market for new grads.

 

[street]

Hauled bales and picked rocks for farmers started at age 9. The small square bales we handled 3 times and got 2¢ a bale. We always got feed and the food was always so good. They would come get and bring me home each day.

 

[scrabbler1]

You are jogging my memory. Not my first job, but I worked in the local public library as a teen as well (also below minimum wage). There was also a short stint as a camp counselor . . .

How enthusiastic were you at these 2 jobs? Was it a little "yay" or was it a BIG "YAY?"

Even these days, when I am at the library, if I see a few books out of order, I can't help moving them around into the correct order! Old habits never die!

 

[MarieIG]

How enthusiastic were you at these 2 jobs? Was it a little "yay" or was it a BIG "YAY?"

Even these days, when I am at the library, if I see a few books out of order, I can't help moving them around into the correct order! Old habits never die!

I MUCH preferred the library to camp counselor. Library big YAY, camp counselor, little yay. (Before - and after - my job I visited the library - voluntarily -gasp!)

 

[5Miler]

I forgot that a few years I did farm work in the summer during my high school years. Periodically I would join crews to detassel corn, sucker tobacco or throw hay (when hay balers weren't such a big thing). Pay could have been better but it was cash.

 

[38Chevy454]

First W2 job was at 15 working in a family friend's business making window screens and doors. The business also made patio covers and patio screen rooms, and I would build the big panels in the shop for the installation crew guys. But mostly screen window and doors. I didn't go out on the installation, stayed working in back of the shop with occasional helping customers in front picking up or dropping off screens. Back of shop no A/C, had a fan to blow air.

Had to ride my bicycle to get to work. I think starting wage was $2.35/hr. I worked that job all through high school and the summer after college year one.

It was a good job for me, working with my hands and learning a lot about small business operations. Before 15 was just mowing lawns and taking care of neighbor houses when they went on vacation. Interestingly I have never worked in a restaurant. In college I worked in auto parts store during school year, and after first year I got engineering intern type summer jobs. Worked my way through college and graduated with no debt, albeit on the 5 year program. I call it my J-O-B scholarship.

 

[Alan]

The other first money I remember earning was shoveling coal. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s in a row house in a pit village in NE England. In the back street between 2 rows of houses a coal truck would come around once a month and dump a load of coal outside each miner’s house. About 5’ up the wall outside each house was a wooden hatch which opened into the coal house at the bottom of the yard. Next to each coal house was the toilet and low down on the outside wall in the street was a bricked up wall where another wooden hatch used to be.

I used to go around neighbors houses and offer to shovel in their coal, and I certainly appreciated the money. During the winter months it could get pretty grim, and it was always hard work. I remember complaining to my Dad about it once and he gave the usual, “you’ve got it easy” speech. When he was my age he did the same thing but also pushed a cart around and using the lower hatch would empty the contents of the toilet and replace it with fresh ash.

 

[O2Bfree]

Age 8 in 1970, I washed dishes at my parents' restaurant on Saturday mornings. I remember the first time after my short morning shift, I walked up to the till with my dad, watched him open the drawer and pull out some bills, and he handed me $3. It seemed like a lot to me, and I was thrilled.

 

[Walt34]

Oh, the very first dollar I ever earned was exactly that - one dollar. Dad was an electrician and worked full time for the power company but did side jobs on the weekends for "beer money". The little jobs, like someone wanted a new outlet installed, or a ceiling light put in, that sort of thing. He came across one job that needed a cable pulled in a crawl space but it was too small for him to fit in. Then he needed a five-year-old who wasn't afraid of spiders to pull that cable. (My younger sister was approached for the task but turned it down - spiders, you know.)

Well, to a five-year-old in 1955, a whole dollar was a pile of money. You could buy twenty candy bars with that! I still remember the feeling of new found wealth and wondering what I would ever do with "all that money".

 

[EastWest Gal]

When I was in high school a friend and I made $20 playing at a wedding. We did flute duets before the ceremony, the Bach’s Air on a G String with me on piano and my friend on flute. I don’t remember what we played at the end of the ceremony. I was also in a jazz/rock group that got paid for a couple of wedding receptions.

 

[aaronc879]

My first paid work was mowing my neighbors lawn for $5 at around age 12. My first official income was as a grocery store stocker for $5.25/hr in 1996 at age 16 or 17.

 

[Gumby]

Oh, the very first dollar I ever earned was exactly that - one dollar. Dad was an electrician and worked full time for the power company but did side jobs on the weekends for "beer money". The little jobs, like someone wanted a new outlet installed, or a ceiling light put in, that sort of thing. He came across one job that needed a cable pulled in a crawl space but it was too small for him to fit in. Then he needed a five-year-old who wasn't afraid of spiders to pull that cable. (My younger sister was approached for the task but turned it down - spiders, you know.)

Well, to a five-year-old in 1955, a whole dollar was a pile of money. You could buy twenty candy bars with that! I still remember the feeling of new found wealth and wondering what I would ever do with "all that money".

As I advised my friend when she said her twin girls were afraid to go in the finished basement because there might be spiders -- "Just tell them the snakes ate all the spiders." She responded that it was indeed a good thing that I had no children.

 

[lucky penny]

I did a lot of babysitting in high school @ 50 cents an hour (early 1960s). I wanted to leave home for college & had big dreams so I took as many jobs as I could to save for that. I opened an account at the local bank, made deposits every week & felt every dollar brought me closer to my goal. By graduation I'd saved $1200. I ended up getting a scholarship to a top school, & those savings were critical.

My first job after college was in NYC. My dream job with a magazine, paying $5000 a year. With that, I could rent a small apartment in a nice neighborhood, which definitely couldn't happen today.

 

[unclemick]

1954 - picked strawberries 28 cents a flat in Oregon ? age 11? On to raspberries, beans, and mowing lawns.

First W - 2 job - 'axeman' aka lowest job on survey crew (4?) laying out new logging roads for the 'powder monkeys' and 'cat drivers'. Ie explosives and bull dozers.

Heh heh heh - have fond memories of forest in and around MT. ST. Helens. Was long gone when it erupted in 1980.

 

[Time2]

In the summer of 1969 I was 14, I got a job at a place called Kiddieland. It was like a small fair for kids. It had two seat airplanes hung on chains that would spin around, cars the went around in a circle, ponies walking in a circle, boats, a six seat Ferris wheel, and a train that went around the whole park. I would guide the kids on the rides and flip the electrical switch to start them. I started at $0.60 and by my 3rd summer I worked my way up to $1.00. I would ride my sting ray bike about 3/4 mile to and from work.

A few years ago, I cleaned out a bunch of paper work, I had my H&R folder with my 1970 tax statement, I earned $300 and paid $3 to have my taxes prepared!

 

[eytonxav]

mowed lawns/shoveled snow>paper route>super market cashier>movie theater usher over a period from 1959 to 1968.

 

[Rocket Man]

Mowed two of our neighbors yards back in 1965, when I was 10 years old. Paid $2.00 per yard.